Samuel Freeman: Avalon Professor in the Humanities

Dr. Samuel R. Freeman, a member of the philosophy department faculty, has been named the Avalon Professor in the Humanities. Dr. Freeman’s research interests include political and social philosophy, moral philosophy, philosophy of law, and history of ethics.

The author of two books—Justice and the Social Contract: Essays on Rawlsian Political Philosophy and Rawls—Dr. Freeman initiated and has been editor of Oxford University Press’s Political Philosophy Series since 2006. He is currently working on longer term projects on social contract theory and on globalism and economic justice.

Dr. Freeman received his juris doctor from the University of North Carolina and his doctorate in philosophy from Harvard University, joining the Penn faculty in 1985. He served as director of the Philosophy, Politics and Economics program at Penn from 1996 through 2004.

The Avalon Professorship in the Humanities was established in 1966 by the Avalon Foundation, now the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.